Trial begins over mental health care in Alabama prisons

Published 10:15 am Tuesday, December 6, 2016

By Associated Press

In this photo, a prisoner walks near his crowded living area in Elmore Correctional Facility.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Testimony is underway in a civil lawsuit over mental health treatment in Alabama’s prison system.

Among the first witnesses Monday was 24-year-old inmate Jamie Wallace, who suffers multiple mental health problems.

Wallace says he wasn’t asked about his mental health status when he first entered prison and was taken off a prescription medication. Wallace says an officer at Donaldson prison near Birmingham asked him if he wanted to kill himself and provided him a razor to use in a suicide attempt.

An attorney for the corrections system challenged whether Wallace was telling the truth before being cut off by the federal judge hearing the case.

Attorneys representing inmates in the class-action lawsuit claim that mental health care provided in Alabama prisons violates the Constitution.

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The state denies all the claims.

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